Donald Trump said on Wednesday that if President Obama releases his college records and his passport application, the mega-millionaire developer will give a $5 million check to charities of Obama’s choosing.

Trump tweeted a video of himself in which he offers Obama a “deal that I don’t believe he can refuse, and I hope he doesn’t.”

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“President Obama is the least transparent president in the history of this country. There’s never been anything like it,” Trump said in the video, taking credit for getting Obama to release his longform birth certificate “or whatever it may be.”

“If he releases these records, it will end the question and indeed the anger of many Americans. They’ll know something about their president. Their president will become transparent, like other presidents,” he said. “I absolutely would be the most happy of all if I did in fact make this contribution through the president to these charities.

White House senior adviser David Plouffe said in response, “Direct those questions to Boston because Donald Trump is Mitt Romney’s biggest supporter, so he owns everything he says.”

About about an hour after his video was made public, Trump tweeted, “The response has been fantastic — actually overwhelming! Thank you!” Trump, who flirted with a presidential run before endorsing Mitt Romney, said on Facebook later Wednesday afternoon that former presidents of both parties have released the requested records.

Without any evidence, conservatives have attacked the president’s time at Columbia University for years, alleging there must something suspicious in his college records.

Building suspense for his noon announcement, Trump tweeted earlier Wednesday morning that “all predictions” regarding the bombshell he’s promised to drop about President Barack Obama are “totally incorrect” - and he was right about that.

Speculation had been swirling for days regarding what Trump would say.

Paddy Power, a European betting house, was accepting wagers on various possibilities. On Wednesday, according to the site, the odds were 4/6 that Trump’s announcement would be that “Barack and Michelle have started divorce proceedings.” Another option: that there was “evidence of illegal drug use by Obama,” a bet that had 3/1 odds. The line that Trump will claim that “Obama is not an American” was 7/2, while a day earlier, those odds were 2/5.

Longer-odd options include: “Obama is an alien” (100/1), “Obama to host…’The Apprentice’ if Romney takes the White House” (250/1) and the nebulous category “Trump ‘I’m your father Obama,’” with odds clocking in at 500/1.

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Readers' Comments (430)

I have it on good authority that Trump is going to astound everyone by endorsing Obama. His reasons have to do with Romney's performance in the foreign policy debate. He saw a weak, me tooism from Romney that convinced him that even an illegitimate strong commander-in-chief is preferable to a weak constitutionally legitimate one.

Oh brother. I heard Trump's "really big news" 3 years ago if this is about Michelle and Obama thinking of divorce. If thinking of divorce was a criminal offense, Donald Trump would be serving a life sentence.

Clearly, he is releasing information that proves conclusively that President Obama is an alien that has spent his life living among us on Earth with the intention of eventually enslaving us to his overlords!

I've always suspected Trump as being a secret supporter of Obama. Why else did he bring the whole birther thing back to the table? In any case Trump needs to stop being such an embarrassment to himself.

Typical. Trump needs to resort to extortion before giving to charity. This is why Republicans have such bad reputations now. You've not only let S T U P I D into your party, you've welcomed him in with open arms.

I'm beginning to like Trump. He has been campaigning for Obama for two years now. I have often thought he was the smartest guy in the room when he has made appearances on Rush and the other right-wing-crazy shows. But now I know he was the smartest guy in the room.

Trump has that Andy Kaufman humor intelligence. He's much too intelligent to be a Republican.

I don't think much of Trump and his stunts, but this fundamental information should have been and/or be public free of charge and $5M could help a lot of needy people. However, I doubt we should hold our breaths waiting for Obama to respond to Trump's challenge.